Nokia N900

Nokia's N900 is already enticing developers, but right now there's not the same compelling catalog of applications as you might find, say, in the iPhone's App Store. Happily that just leaves room for Maemo coders to fill with their own apps, such as a homebrew open-source Spotify application.

Having dithered around its release date like a forgetful felon, the Nokia N900 looks to have finally been granted a more or less official launch window. According to the official US Nokia store, the N900 will begin shipping at the "end of October 2009"; that tallies with what Amazon UK were saying back at the end of September (October 26th), but the mega-retailer has now changed its tune.

The Nokia N900 was the stand-out device from Nokia World back in September, and we've been tracking the Maemo 5 smartphone ever since. Imagine our surprise, then, when a pre-release N900 dropped onto the SlashGear test bench today; the hardware is final, so the 5-megapixel autofocus Carl Zeiss camera is onboard, together with HSPA, WiFi b/g, a 3.5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and you can check out our video unboxing and gallery after the cut.

It's looking like the launch of the Nokia N900 has been delayed, with two online retailers pushing back their estimated release dates to the end of October. Amazon UK is now suggesting that the N900 will arrive come October 26th, rather than at the beginning of the month as was previously expected.

Perhaps the stand-out device from Nokia World this year was the N900, the Finnish company's new internet tablet/smartphone crossover. The final production version still isn't on the market, but that hasn't stopped "preview" reviews from those with access to prototypes, covering both Maemo 5 and the N900 hardware itself. My-Symbian have just pushed out a four page article doing just that, and they're more than a little excited.

Part of Nokia's challenge to cement the N900 and Maemo is in drawing developers to the open-source platform, and to do that they've kicked off PUSH N900, a "unique design, hacking and modding project". To mark the event - which will see winning proposals rewarded with an N900, funding and support to deliver on their idea - the Finns commissioned four sample projects, inspired by the '80s and using the N900 in distinctive ways. These ended up including a 3D ViewMaster camera, digital Rolodex, 80's radio tagger/Last.fm integration, and a Speak and Spell mashup.

We'd suggest you dip into your handy pinch-of-salt bag for this one, since we've seen what can happen with Nokia shipping predictions before, but according to The Nokia Blog shipments of N900 handsets are expected to reach US distribution centers on September 27th. The Maemo 5 smartphone - launched at Nokia World two weeks ago - went up for preorder on September 4th, and assuming the trucks turn up on time, the first units could be in buyers' hands by early October.

Apple's iPod touch 3G may be "the funnest iPod ever" now that Steve & Co have decided it's a hardcore gaming machine, but it looks like they may have some competition from Nokia. One of the N900's less publicized features is its TV output, which can be used to play the preinstalled games - Global Race and Bounce - on a bigger display. Maemo-Guru shot some footage of the N900 doing its gaming thing, and it certainly looks promising.

Nokia has revealed that it will not be customizing its N900 Maemo 5 smartphone to suit carriers, claiming part of Linux’s strength in the mobile market is offering customers a “compelling value proposition”. It’s a potentially risky strategy; Nokia’s struggle to gain the same sort of foothold in North America as it has in Europe has been partly blamed on a refusal to adapt to carrier-demands there.

If you needed another reason to look beyond Maemo 5 to its successor, Maemo 6, set to be released in around twelve months time, then how about multitouch and gesture-based input? Nokia have confirmed that Qt 4.6 will be optimized for Maemo 6 but also see a port to the upcoming Symbian 4, as well as bringing with it improvements to the WebKit browser and a reduction in the need for widgets.

As well as the obvious product launches from Nokia World this week - the N900, X6, X3, N97 mini and Ovi SDK - SlashGear also had the opportunity to sit down with various executives and team members from the company and discuss not only Nokia's plans for the future but some of the decisions that have brought them to this stage. After the cut in our Nokia World wrap-up, a new DRM-free media store, plans for future netbooks, the push for the US market and more.

After our initial hands-on with the N900 - the video and gallery of which you can see here - we spent some more time playing with the Maemo 5 smartphone at Nokia World this week. Our initial enthusiasm has been tempered a little by some of the real-world compromises that blending a smartphone and an Internet Tablet demand, though we're still looking forward to a full review unit; check out our hands-on impressions after the cut.